Why Small Businesses Owners Should Consider Electric Cars

Electric cars can benefit small businesses, here’s a close look at the Chevy Bolt.

The Bolt is a breakthrough in all electric cars. At a Chevy price, it delivers a 238 miles driving range on a fully charged battery. Especially in urban business driving, the Bolt offers superior performance plus a lower operating costs than a gasoline powered car.

It is time for every business to test drive a Chevy Bolt.

No Range Anxiety With Bolt’s Driving Range

I have test driven a lot of electric cars. Even when I knew how far I was driving, I still feared running the batteries dry.

There is no range anxiety driving a Bolt. During a long weekend test drive, including going over a mountain via twisty two lane roads, I never feared running out of electricity. The biggest compliment I can give to the Bolt is that it you feel no more fear of running out of energy than driving a gasoline fueled car.

Recharging capabilities

When it is time to recharge Bolt’s batteries, the experience is as good or better than filling up with gasoline. Most businesses will install a Level Two, 240 volt, recharging station by the Bolt’s parking location. GM will sell you one for $699. You will need an electrician to install it.

A Level Two recharger adds about 25 miles of driving range per hour to the Bolt’s battery. At the end of a business day, you plug the recharger into the Bolt and the next morning the car’s ready to go another 230+ miles. To save more money, check with your utility for their lower priced, off peak rates.

If you do need to recharge the Bolt during a driving day, public charging stations have really improved. In pioneering states like California, you can drive much of the state and always find a conveniently located recharging station.

During my long weekend with the Bolt I used two difference 50 DC Level Three stations. These high voltage recharging stations add about 90 miles of driving range in just 30 minutes. The process is as easy as plugging it into the Bolt’s recharging receptacle and pressing a digital card on the station’s digital reader.

From start to finish it took about 15 minutes longer than my typical gas station experience.

Bolt’s One Pedal Driving Is A Technology Marvel No Gasoline Car Can Duplicate

Overcoming real concerns, I tried one pedal driving on a street with zero traffic. To my surprise, and relief, taking my foot off the accelerator slowed the Bolt to a stop.

And it stayed there without holding down the brake pedal! I was really surprised that this radically different type of driving became second nature after using it for about five minutes.

One pedal is a safer and more fuel efficient way to drive. The car provides real time driving feedback that promotes safer behavior. It dramatically reduces hard breaking without reducing the fun of driving. From my driving experience, I would anticipate a business would see fewer rear end collisions.

One pedal driving is achieved through merging smart technologies with a regenerative braking system.

The smart technology seamlessly provides progressive braking to slow the Bolt down and then stop it. The regenerative braking technology captures the braking energy as electricity and stores it in the car’s battery.

Engaging this technology is as easy as shifting the Bolt’s transmission to “L.”

Bill Roth is a nationally-recognized business coach that has successfully worked with hundreds of business owners and leaders on proven green best practices that win new customers, grow product revenues and cut costs. He brings to this coaching his past experience as a senior officer leading teams that developed the first hydrogen fueled Prius and the development of utility scale solar power plants. His best selling book The Secret Green Sauce, available on Amazon, profiles actual businesses using best practices in pricing, marketing, cost management and branding to make money and a difference. In 2020 Roth is conducting the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Green Builds Business program, sponsored by Toyota, where he will be providing free coaching to business leaders on how to use today’s exciting new clean technologies to win customers and cut costs.